Are planes from LAX to EWR in the United Fleet usually airbus a319's or airbus a320's? If this is true, which planes have the ability to pipe in ch 9 on their planes? I know the 737's can't do it, but can the a319's and a320's do it? I know I'll be taking flight later on in the near future and I wanna kinda know if it's worth the ask considering the type of plane. Is it true that if I get a 757 on that route, that would be an old continental plane, because I know that those 757's which are continental planes cannot do it either. The only planes that can do it, I think, are the United 757's and the 767's and I'm unsure about the airbuses. Just trying to cover the bases so I don't need to ask a question closer to my trip to give people some time to answer.

If there is a particular person, here on the forum, who is really knowledgeable about these united ch 9 topics, it might just be easy to PM me, but if you want the answer to be seen by everyone, you can reply here as well. Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of their summer and I wish everyone a good day.

A few years back right after the merger, I flew an United a319 from LGA-ORD and the plane did have channel 9 and worked great. I then flew ORD-PHX on an a320 and it also had channel 9 and worked fine so whether you fly an a319 or a320 you should have the channel.

Just got back from an SFL-IAD trip. Flew over on an A-319 and had Channel 9 all the way, came back on a COA 757-300 that had Direct TV, no ch 9 in the mix at all. For future trips, I wonder if there's a way you can tell ahead of time if you're getting a UAL or COA B-757? Does anyone know if the UAL web site gives you that much detail?

I recently flew ORD-EWR on a 738. The Captain told me that since it was ex-COA acft, no Ch9 was available. He did say that UAL plans to begin putting Ch9 capabilities on all the ex-COA acft later this year. And yes, it varies by flight crew whether they turn it on. I usually try to pop my head into the cockpit when I board (asking the FA first of course) and ask the captain if he's willing to do it. Sometimes an "unwilling" captain will change his mind if he knows someone is interested in listening.

The answer I got once upon a time by an unwilling captain (even after asking) was: "How would YOU like someone looking over your shoulder at your work and listening to everything you say while you do your job?" Can't say I agree with his logic...but that's why they call it captain's prerogative.

Another captain mentioned once to me that he didn't like to because he'd had pax (who obviously know nothing about flying) get upset when there were traffic advisories and crews would respond to ATC with traffic not in sight, or TCAS alerts etc...things like that.

Just got back from an SFL-IAD trip. Flew over on an A-319 and had Channel 9 all the way, came back on a COA 757-300 that had Direct TV, no ch 9 in the mix at all. For future trips, I wonder if there's a way you can tell ahead of time if you're getting a UAL or COA B-757? Does anyone know if the UAL web site gives you that much detail?

It's actually quite simple (if you can see the registration number on the aircraft):Pre-merger COA mainliners all had reg's with the N followed by ALL numbers like N31324. Pre-merger UAL mainliners had the more standard format of three numbers and two letters like N123UA. To date, I have not heard of any ship reg #s being changed, so it's the standout giveaway in the post-merger world even in post-merger paint.